


12 Monkeys Theme Week - Day 4 - Bending History

by pirategirljack



Category: 12 Monkeys (TV)
Genre: 12 Monkeys Theme Week, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-25 11:02:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3807964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pirategirljack/pseuds/pirategirljack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I had to figure out a way around That Death Scene, and this is what I got.</p>
            </blockquote>





	12 Monkeys Theme Week - Day 4 - Bending History

**Author's Note:**

> Originally part of 12 Monkeys Theme Week:  
> http://samiholloway.tumblr.com/post/115936821967/12-monkeys-theme-week-day-4-casserole-5

Cole watched himself splinter out, and tried not to remember what it felt like then, two years ago, when Cassie had died in his arms. He’d spent a fairly large portion of the time since then trying not to remember, trying not to worry about when this moment came around again. They had a plan, he and Cassie. He remembered exactly what it was like–a side effect of the serum that had once let him jump around time like he wasn’t part of it–and they’d found a workaround in the poison he’d given her right before the younger him arrived. A poison that could mirror the symptoms of the virus, then a coma that looked like death. A poison that had a cure.

But he didn’t really know how long he’d stayed there, holding her and crying. Or how long he’d sat after carefully putting her down, not knowing what to do, not knowing when or if he would splinter home. It had felt like a century. It had felt like his whole existence had ground to a stop, his thoughts, his heartbeat, time itself. He was in the middle of the end of the world, in a bubble of silence that held only himself and the body of the woman he loved.

Waiting now, watching from the shadows far enough away that he wouldn’t give himself away with the temporal reaction, it seemed interminable. He wished he could just go out there and get himself out of the way–every minute made it less likely the antidote would work–but this was not one of the moments when time could be changed, only one where it could be gotten around. He wished they’d had time to test this out first, to know how long they really had.

The end of the world was not big on giving extra time.

Finally, the lights flickered and his younger self snapped out of reality. He remembered what that felt like, being yanked out of time, being dragged through it, but he’d never seen it from the outside like this. From Cassie’s point of view. It was startling, seeing someone, then seeing through the space where they’d been.

More so because it was still weird looking at himself from the outside.

As soon as the lights–what was left of them–steadied, he darted out from his hiding place, rolled Cassie over, and jabbed the syringe into her thigh. She was still long enough for him to jiggle her arm and say “Come on, Cass, come on come on come on!” And then she arched and dragged a gasp into her lungs, and then collapsed back onto the thin carpeting. He gathered her up again like the other him had just done, and pushed her hair out of her face, murmured that she was fine, that everything had worked. He hoped she hadn’t been left too long, hoped that her brain hadn’t been starved of oxygen.

Cassie had trouble opening her eyes, then had trouble focusing them, but when she dragged herself back from whatever dim place she’d been, she knew him.

“Told you I’d see you soon,” she wheezed.

“Not soon enough for me.”

He kissed her, held her close while she regained use of her limbs, then helped her up.

“How long was I out?”

“Almost too long. How do you feel?”

“Woozy. Queasy. But I don’t think I’m missing any memories or important character traits.”

“Can you walk?”

“We’ll see. Where are we off to?”

“That lab across the state. We still have time.”

“Let’s reset, then.”

He let her rest, leaning against the high workstation table, and carried a body out from the other room. She’d been one of Cassie’s coworkers, and she’s died not long before the other him had arrived. She had the same build as Cassie, the same bone structure, wore the same size clothes. Cassie put her lab coat on her and her watch, and they put her where his other self had left Cassie, so he’d still find a body and a watch. So he’d still be able to come here and meet Cassie at the beginning of all this.

“Thank you, Denise,” Cassie said, and smoothed her friend’s hair back. “I’m sorry this had to happen.”

“And it will again, until we can find the key. The lynchpin that changes everything.”

“I know. But it’s still sad.”

He took Cassie’s hand and kissed her knuckles, and she wiped her eyes and tried to smile at him. “Back to work?”

“Back to work.”


End file.
